


Hey Stranger

by SonjaJade



Series: Bee Stings and Honey [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Secret Marriage, Shared Trauma, Suicidal Thoughts, War, thoughts of murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:46:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24627241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: Riza's experiences with Roy during and after the Ishvalan conflict change her from livid to understanding to participating.
Relationships: Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang
Series: Bee Stings and Honey [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795597
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	Hey Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Royai Week 2020, Day 2: Song prompt  
> Accompanies my day 1 entry
> 
> Song used is "Stranger" by Lung  
> https://youtu.be/j5A89u5Gw3k

* * *

**_“_ _Hey stranger, I know you well_ **

**_I know you better than you know yourself_ **

**_I know the way you hold your body_ **

**_And I hate this.”_ **

* * *

Riza sees him for the first time from her sniper’s nest. Roy darts out onto the battlefield and snaps his fingers, causing a wave of fire and flame to spark inside a wooden cart barreling down the sandy street. It’s engulfed immediately and as screaming Ishvalans try to escape, he snaps again. Clothing goes up like dry tinder and two collapse while one is mowed down by gun fire.

She trains her rifle on him, her heart breaking into thousands of pieces inside her heaving chest. But at the last second, she doesn’t pull the trigger. In her scope, she can see his face as clearly as she saw it the night she gave herself to him. What at first glance appears to be sweat pouring from his hair line down his face is actually tears. His dark eyes glitter with them in the sunlight, and while there are indeed streaks of sweat, the tracks of his tears are wider and clearer. He’s sobbing as he carries out his orders.

When the shooting stops, Roy looks around to see bodies everywhere and his shoulders slump. Riza’s never seen him look so defeated in her entire life. Even when her father would berate him for his poor study habits and unmade bed, he always stood up straight with his shoulders held back.

He’s broken. 

And she hates that the tattoo on her back led him to this.

* * *

**_“But I’ve been watching it all_ **

**_Yeah I’ve been watching the way you curl your face_ **

**_The way you clench your fingers in the dark”_ **

* * *

Later, she follows Roy to his tent, back far enough that he’d never know it was her. He ducks inside and she uses the darkness to sidle up behind the fabric hut. Carefully, she crouches down and listens. Riza hears the rustling of fabric before a muffled, bloodcurdling scream. He screams over and over before giving into more sobs.

“If there’s a god,” he whimpers, “break my fingers. Blow my hands off. Let a building come down on my head!” 

Riza listens as a cork pops from a bottle and he gulps down what she assumes is homemade liquor.

“How can I ever show my face to Riza again?" he whines before sniffling.

She wants to go in there, hold him and kiss his tears away. She knows when she revealed her father’s work to him that he never intended to use it this way. Roy had grand dreams of helping people, not slaughtering them. Riza watched him earlier in the day and saw him scowl at his clenched fists after the battle. His eyes looked hollow, like all the life in him died right along with his victims. 

And what about her? Riza’s got blood on her own hands, now. She wants to assure him they’re in this together, and give him a moment of peace in the midst of all the chaos. But she’ll let him have the night to himself. She’ll try to find him in the morning and let him know she’s here, still loving him, still by his side.

* * *

**_“But you’re a part of me now_ **

**_Yeah you’re a part of the way I hold my breath,_ **

**_The way I find your stories on my skin”_ **

* * *

In the months following the war’s conclusion, Riza finds herself wincing at anything that sounds like fingers snapping. People snapping to get their obstinate cat back inside, people listening to music, people describing how quickly something happened- none of them can wield fire from thin air, yet she finds herself holding her breath immediately afterwards. 

Her back feels like bees have nested into her skin and are using their stingers to dig a canyon into her body. Riza can’t bring herself to look at it in the mirror, but she’s worked out an ingenious system in her bathroom so she can apply salve to the wounds easily. She nailed a bath towel to the wall and covered it in poultice cream, then gingerly presses against it, forcing it into the melted hills and valleys of the now destroyed tattoo.

She hasn’t seen Roy since the day he burned her back. She doesn’t know if he’s alive or dead. The vow they made to each other in the kitchen of her father’s home feels like an imagined memory. Riza wonders if their fledgling marriage can survive the emotional and physical agony of what they’ve done. She wonders if Roy has forgotten her while he deals with his own demons. She picks the phone up at least ten times a day, thinking to call his aunt, but she never does.

Then one day, right after Riza returns to her tiny private quarters, she finds a letter slipped between the utility bills and the monthly coupon booklet. It’s from Roy. He wants to see her in his new office to discuss adding her to his unit. He has some ideas he wants her opinions on…

Her husband has not forgotten her. In being rediscovered by him, and apparently in better mental health than when she left him, she finds it easy to forgive him for fulfilling her request to damage her body.

* * *

**_“I am not myself at all_ **

**_So could you forget about it now”_ **

* * *

Riza swears to be beside him until he can rectify their sins in the desert, even pledging to follow him into hell if she needs to. She promises to shoot him in the back if he wavers from this conviction. She accepts his sincerest and heartfelt apologies for everything they’ve gone through in the last few months.

When he locks the door and his hands come to her hips, he kisses her, and all is forgiven and forgotten.


End file.
